State Sen. Scott Beason,
R-Gardendale, said the law was intended to push illegal immigrants out of
Alabama, not necessarily deport them from the United States, which is a
function of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that
Napolitano oversees. Beason said her testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday was
not a surprise and that the Alabama law was never intended to be a big referral
service to ICE for deportation.

"We said at the beginning, we
didn't think there would be huge numbers of people arrested or a mass filling of
jails," Beason said.

Instead, Beason said, the
sections of the state law barring people from conducting business with
undocumented immigrants are having the intended effect: self-deportation out of
Alabama, for which ICE is not needed.

"It takes away the attractiveness
and the things that draw an illegal workforce and it's beginning to have a
reduction in the number of people coming here," Beason said. "It was not designed to go out and
arrest tremendous numbers of people. Most folks in the state illegally will
self-deport and move to states that are supportive of large numbers of illegals
coming to their state. We were not putting together a deportation scheme."

Napolitano told the House
Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that her agency is not helping enforce the
Alabama law but is instead working with the U.S. Justice Department in its
legal challenge to the law.